


Parallels

by Awesome_Sauce432



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fitz Reflecting On His Decisions, FitzSimmons - Freeform, Missing Scene, Other characters get mentioned, Right after 3x22, because we didn't see much FitzSimmons after that did we
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 22:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7011109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesome_Sauce432/pseuds/Awesome_Sauce432
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hive was dead. Their ordeal was finally over. But at a cost. A cost which is eerily similar to one Fitz nearly paid himself more than once. And now, he's seen what happens to the friends of the one who paid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parallels

The flight home was deathly silent. No one could believe it. No one knew what to do. What to say. It was like a dream. Their long, painful ordeal was finally over. Hive was dead. Hopefully forever this time. But at the cost of Lincoln. 

When they got back, everyone dispersed. Daisy ran to her quarters, locking the door behind her before anyone else could get inside. Coulson and May went to the formers office. Mack left to see Elena in the hospital, relay the news to her. Fitz and Simmons stumbled into Fitz's quarters, stuck in a daze. 

"I don't believe it." Fitz whispered after he closed the door, so quiet he was sure Jemma could barely hear him. Poor Jemma. Tears were streaming down her face even as she tried to wipe them away. Poor Jemma.

He finally understood. The cost of a grand romantic gesture. What happened to Lincoln... Had nearly happened to Fitz on more than one occasion. The only difference between then and now was that something happened to stop Fitz from sacrificing himself. From dying. 

Nothing had stopped Lincoln. Nothing could have stopped Lincoln. 

He wouldn't have regretted it. Not for a second. If Fitz had been in the same place, he wouldn't have regretted it either. He didn't regret all the times he had nearly died saving Jemma. He would have been a hypocrite if he said he did. But now... seeing how Lincoln's death affected Daisy... he wasn't sure how he felt any more. 

He closed the short distance between him and Jemma, wrapping his arms around her as she sobbed quietly, her shoulders heaving. No words were exchanged between them. Jemma was crying so much it was more likely any words would be unintelligible. And Fitz's mind was racing, replaying the event that had just occurred over and over again. 

Because it was all too easy to replace Daisy and Lincoln with Jemma and him. 

All too easy to imagine Jemma sobbing on the floor, holding the lifeless radio. 

All too easy to imagine her crying, ignoring any comfort offered to her, because what was the point anymore? Her boyfriend was dead. The person that she loved, that she had shared part of herself with, was dead. 

It was all too easy to imagine because Fitz knew it had nearly happened. In the pod, with Maveth. Heck, even back when Jemma had hit him with a fire extinguisher to stop him from jumping out of a plane after her. Because she knew he would do it. She knew he would risk his life, no matter the costs. For her. 

It had always seemed like the right decision to him. If Jemma died or got hurt, when he knew that he could have done something about it, he wouldn't have been able to live with himself. So what was the point of worrying about his own life?

But now he had seen what that did - the willingness to lay down your life for someone else - to the person on the other side of the equation. The person being saved. The person being handed the last breath of oxygen. The person holding the radio, begging him to turn the spaceship around. 

He had seen the desperation and the pain on Daisy's face, and he recognised it as nearly the same pain he had seen on Jemma's when he insisted she take the last bit of oxygen. The last bit of hope for survival. 

Jemma knew it as well. Was probably imagining the same things as him. He had seen the look she had given him, after the spaceship carrying Lincoln and Hive had... exploded. As Daisy screamed and cried into the radio, begging Lincoln to answer. Jemma had looked at him, almost accusingly. As if to say, 'Look Fitz, this is what we could have been. Look Fitz, do you remember how many times this nearly happened to us?'. 

After all, the only difference between this event and the pod, Maveth, every time Fitz had decided his life was worth less than Jemma's, was that Fitz had been stopped. Something always happened before it was too late for him. Someone would pull him up to the surface. Save him. That hadn't happened with Lincoln. There had been no way to save him, or stop him. None that wouldn't have resulted in more lives being lost. 

Lincoln had made a choice. A choice that saved Daisy, and everyone else. But also a choice that broke Daisy. He didn't know how long it would take her to recover, emotionally. If she ever would. After all, what was the point of living if the person you loved was gone?

At some point, he and Jemma had slid down to the floor, leaning up against the end of Fitz's bed. Jemma was still sobbing softly, fingers intertwined with his. 

It could have been them. It nearly was them, more than once. It could have been Jemma locking herself away, refusing to even look at her teammates. It could have been Fitz, floating lifelessly in space, or drifting at the bottom of the ocean...

It could have been them, but it wasn't. They were still alive, Fitz thought. They had survived through everything. All the trials and tribulations, all of his grand gestures and self-sacrifices. Somehow, they had both survived. 

Before, he wouldn't have cared if he had died, as long as Jemma lived. Now? He didn't know. He had no doubt he would still do anything in his power to keep Jemma safe. But he didn't know what he would do, now that he had seen what laying down your life for your loved one did to that person. How they were affected. 

There had been no happy ending for Daisy and Lincoln. If Lincoln hadn't sealed himself in that spaceship, Daisy would have. One of them would have died. To save everyone else. One of them would have been the one to hold onto the radio, begging the other to turn back. There was no rescue for them.

But for Fitz and Jemma? They still had a chance. And Fitz intended to make the most of that chance.

**Author's Note:**

> So I had some massive writers block writing this, but I finally finished all 1000 words of it. (Give or take). I hope you enjoy, becuase all throughout poor Lincoln's death scene, I was just having flashbacks to the pod. So many flashbacks.


End file.
